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Introduction and qualitative risk analysis

Handbook on

Import Risk.Analysis

for Animals and Animal Products

Volume 1.

Introduction and qualitative risk

analysis

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Halldbook all Imparl Risk AnalYsis for Allimais alld Animal Products, Volume 1, 2004 III Foreword The importation of animals and their products involves a degree of disease risk to the importing country. This risk may be presented by one or several diseases or pathogenic agents.

The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (referred to in brief as "the SPS Agreement'') of the World Trade Organisation (\VfO) allows WTO Member Countries two options in setting sanitary measures to protect against such risks. The SPS Agreement strongly encourages Member Countries to base their sanitary measures on international standards such as the OlE TetTestnal AniJJlal Health Code (referred to in brief as "the TetTestrial Code") and the OlE Aquatic AniJJlal Health Code (referred to in brief as "the Aquatic Code"). In the absence of relevant standards or when Members choose to adopt a higher level of protection than that provided by such standards, science-based risk analysis is essential to determine whether importation in a particular commodity poses a significant risk to human or animal health and, if so, what sanitary measures could be adopted to reduce that risk to an acceptable level. However, the level of protection applied to imports must not be different to that applied to products within the domestic market.

Risk analysis is a tool intended to provide decision-makers with an objective, repeatable and documented assessment of the risks posed by a particular course of action. In this regard, the principal aim of import risk analysis, a relatively new and evolving discipline, is to provide importing countries with an objective and defensible method of assessing the disease risks associated with the importation of animals and their products.

The proposal for an import risk analysis handbook arose during a 1998 meeting of the OlE Working Group on Informatics and Epidemiology. The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise 'G. Caporale' at Teramo (an OlE Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and the Organisation of Veterinary Services in Developing Countries) offered to convene an OlE ad hoc Group to draft such a handbook. With the support of this Institute, this ad hoc Group of international experts has developed a comprehensive treatise on the subject.

Volume 1 of this handbook introduces the concepts of import risk analysis and discusses qualitative risk analysis while Volume 2 (which will be published later) addresses quantitative risk analysis. The key issues in the discipline are explained within the frameworks provided by the WTO SPS Agreement and the chapters in both Codes on risk analysis.

I believe that the handbook will provide practical guidance to Veterinary Services confronted with the need to analyse the risks posed by imports, to ensure that stakeholders, risk analysts and decision-makers can be confident that the disease risks posed have been identified and can be managed effectively. The handbook will also be useful as a training aid to address the critical need for capacity building in this discipline.

I would like to thank the experts from the ad hoc Group (all actively involved in conducting risk analyses) for their contributions to this excellent handbook. In particular, my sincere thanks go to Dr Stuart MacDiarmid who has spent many hours editing both volumes to ensure that the fmal product will be accessible to veterinarians worldwide.

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The following definitions are taken from the OlE TerrestrialAnimal Health Code.

Acceptable risk: Risk level judged by OlE Member Countries to be compatible with the protection of animal and public health within their country.

Code: The Terresttial Animal Health Code and the Aquatic Animal Health Code of the OlE.

Consequence assessment: The process of describing the relationship between specified exposures to a biological agent and the consequences of those exposures. A causal process must exist by which exposures produce adverse health or environmental consequences, which may in turn lead to socio-economic consequences. The consequence assessment describes the consequences of a given exposure and estimates the probability of them occurring.

Exposure assessment: The process of describing the biological pathway(s) necessary for exposure of animals and humans in the importing country to the hazards (in this case the pathogenic agents) released from a given risk source, and estimating the probability of the exposure(s) occurring, either qualitatively or quantitatively.

Hazard: Any pathogenic agent that could produce adverse consequences on the importation of a commodiry.

Hazard identification: The process of identifying the pathogenic agents which could potentially be introduced in the commodiry considered for importation.

Implementation: The process of following through with the risk management decision and ensuring that the risk management measures are in place.

Importing country: A country that is the fmal destination to which commodities are sent.

International veterinary certificate: A certificate, issued in conformity with the provisions of Chapter 1.2.2. of the Code, describing the animal health and/or public health requirements which are fulfilled by the exported commodities.

Monitoring and review: The ongoing process by which the risk management measures are audited to ensure that they are achieving the results intended.

Option evaluation: The process of identifying, evaluating the efficacy and feasibility of, and selecting measures in order to reduce the risk associated with an importation in line with the Member Country's appropriate level of protection. The efficacy is the degree to which an option reduces the likelihood and/or magnitude of adverse health and economic consequences. Evaluating the efficacy of the options selected is an iterative process that involves their incorporation into the risk assessment and then comparing the resulting level of risk with that considered acceptable. The evaluation for feasibility normally focuses on technical, operational and economic factors affecting the implementation of the risk management options.

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